Dry Bones Live! Living in Abundance. Jn. 10:10b. August 2013.

It is indeed, fascinating how easily humanity loses hope on how fast things can turn around for our good. The reality is that some individuals are actually going through a lot of life’s stubborn challenges. Often such persons expect that within a specific amount of time there would be remission and breakthrough concerning such situations and circumstances. However, when such unacceptable situations persist, human nature has a way of letting us think that things would remain, exactly, the same forever and as such we should surrender and lose hope even today. Humanity somehow has a very intriguing and fascinating way of analyzing yesterday so as to come to a very vague understanding of today in order to unjustifiably predict tomorrow. This is not supposed to be so!

I met a young man one day. He was in his late thirties. As I was trying to pray for him, I mentioned that the Lord will bless him with long healthy life. I said to him that the Bible says that our portion, on this earth, shall be a minimum of three score years and ten (70 years) (Ps. 90:10). He didn’t even allow me to finish the prayers when he interjected and told me to stop wasting my time. “Why?” I asked. He said “pastor there is a precedent; My great grandfather died before he was 50 years old. My grandfather died before 50. My father died before 50”. He then added that he would be stupid to think that he would be smarter and older than all of those before him. He said all he was doing; his entire purpose and intention, at that point in time, was to gather as much wealth and resources as he could for his wife and children because he was convinced that, somehow, he would also die, before he would be 50 years old; like the other people in his lineage, no matter what. He said their fate was already sealed. He is still alive though. I got really disappointed that someone would become that pessimistic; that somebody in this day of unlimited dispensation of mercy and grace of our Lord and savior; Jesus Christ would give in to the negative tendencies as a result of poor understanding of the exact divine realities, possibilities and outcomes of life on our planet.

You may say to me “well pastor that is on the other extreme side of pessimism. That man was just on the extreme side”. Really? How many of us have accepted certain disease conditions just because they run in the family; how many have said “you know I have this disease or that disease because my father also had it after his father and it runs in the family”. How many people have even boasted, for instance, that they are poor teachers, for instance, because their fathers and fore fathers were all poor teachers. I watched a man on television who said he was engaged in one life-threatening, deadly sport/adventure because it runs in their family even when his grandfather died accidentally while participating in the same sport. He said he knew that since it happened to his grandfather, it would also happen to him. He, however didn’t mind because after all the sport and of course the possible fatal consequence run in their family.

When that business fails some say “oh well, it should fail; that is the expectation; others before it failed and after all the global economy is bad”. When that child is having a consistent poor performance in school, some rationalize it on the ground that the child’s father was virtually stupid in class at that exact stage of his life. So it is also expected that his child shouldn’t do better. Many get so dejected, so frustrated that they say well, this it, that is the end and we surrender; after all going be the antecedents, by now all hopes should, expectedly, be lost.

Such people are not alone. Their actions are not unprecedented as we have seen similar examples even in the scriptures. In Ezekiel 37:1, God appeared to his prophet and took him in the spirit and showed him the valley that was full of dry bones. God asked Ezekiel if the bones could live again. God proceeded to ask Ezekiel to do a few prophetic things that eventually brought the dry bones back to life that they became a mighty army. When we read this story, we somehow get a feeling that this was happening in some kind of a fictional, abstract, unrealistic world. Perhaps in the realm of the celestial. No! It was happening right here on earth. In Ezek. 37:10 God explained to Ezekiel that the dry bones were indeed the house of Israel who had lost hope about everything and had concluded that the end had come. Those were the dry bones; “Then said he unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel, behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts”; Human beings who had lost hope concerning a particular situation, to a point where they had considered such hopes dead and at no point of any significant revival. Their hopes in any possible, positive revival of those situations have become in fact dead and dry.

God promised that just as the flesh and breadth came into the dry bones and they became a formidable mighty army, if we do what he is asking us to do, that challenge that had looked impossible; that testimony that had refused to come and is considered dead; that health situation that had refused to improve or go, will turn around; God will make them good; He will turn every liability to an asset and a defense for us in Jesus name. God asked Ezekiel to do three principal things:

(1) He asked Ezekiel if he had faith. That was why he asked him whether the dry bones can live again and Ezekiel replied it was only God that knows ( Ezek. 37:3)

(2) He asked Ezekiel to command flesh to come on the dry bones. This could mean every accessory, muscle, connection, important part, individual that has been missing, that has led to the delay of our miracles. He commanded them to come.

(3) Lastly he asked Ezekiel to command breadth to come upon them. This is the all-important, indispensable ingredient needed for life. That which will make the engine of the testimony to begin to function again. This could even include money, anointing, power etc. He commanded it to come.

In other words God asked Ezekiel to prophesy, in faith concerning the dry bones and they became a mighty army.

I don’t know what your case may be. I don’t know what the challenge is now. In the mighty name of Jesus, God will use it is as a stepping stone to your elevation. People may have had their turns before you, your time is now and it shall be a glorious and everlasting one in Jesus name. You will surely laugh last in the mighty name of Jesus. Those who laughed at you will laugh with you in Jesus name.

However, we must do just like Ezekiel was asked to do (in steps 1 to 3 above); it was a message to all of us that said “Don’t lose hope. Have faith that God is able and he is willing to do it. He will turn those challenges to awesome testimonies in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Further, you must do something on your own. You must use your mouth. You must make positive, prophetic decrees concerning your life and future. Speak about yourself. Command, everything that has been a challenge to your life and ministry, up to this moment to bow to the wish of the God of heaven and change for your good in Jesus name. Command any situation that is as dead as a dry bone in your life to receive flesh and breadth now in Jesus name. They will not only come back to life, but they must turn into an incredible army; weapons of defense and protection; attributes of power and not weakness, symbols of joy and not sadness in your life now in Jesus name. Let God use that challenge now as a stepping stone to your greatness in Jesus name. Command every dry bone in your life to come back to life. As they come back, God will turn what looked like an obvious disadvantage to your essential advantage in Jesus name. Reject every recurring family history of sadness and sorrow no matter the explanation and justification. In Jesus name, men and women will have respect for you; they will fear the God that you serve who has elevated you to the new position and status.

Congratulations! This is a new season and dispensation of abundance and grace in the name of Jesus. That dry bone shall come, roaring, back to life in Jesus mighty name, Amen!

If have not given your life to Christ please do so now for tomorrow might be too late.